WAD shuns corruption

A women’s organisation has encouraged other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to speak out against corruption in Namibia, as thousands of citizens are faced with hunger, HIV-AIDS and unemployment.

At a field day in Outjo in the Kunene Region on Monday, the Executive Director of the Women’s Action for Development (WAD), Veronica de Klerk, called on President Hifikepunye Pohamba to combat corruption of any kind in Government and parastatals. She said WAD had witnessed the worst forms of poverty possible – children having to leave school at a tender age to help their parents earn an income, desperately poor mothers and fathers slowly losing their grip on life, and unemployed young people resorting to alcohol and drugs in an attempt to drown their sorrows.”It has been profoundly discouraging for WAD, which has been giving its utmost for more than a decade to train poor, unemployed rural people to uplift their living standards and their economic well-being, just to be informed that people who are occupying front-runner positions in the country are blatantly stealing millions of dollars from the poor, which were meant to pay amongst others for their coffins and maternity leave,” she noted.De Klerk said that corruption had left the nation feeling betrayed, disillusioned and rocked to the core.She said corrupt officials were unscrupulously robbing the poor of what was rightfully theirs through their greed and haste to become rich quick.”If Namibia were a wealthy country with low levels of poverty, unemployment and a good health status of its people, the impact of such white-collar corruption would have less of an impact on the poor,” she said.De Klerk said the reality was that Namibia was not a wealthy nation but one with high unemployment, life-threatening diseases and a high percentage of extremely poor and illiterate people.Therefore, the President deserved the full support of all honest citizens in building a corruption-free society, she said.- NampaShe said WAD had witnessed the worst forms of poverty possible – children having to leave school at a tender age to help their parents earn an income, desperately poor mothers and fathers slowly losing their grip on life, and unemployed young people resorting to alcohol and drugs in an attempt to drown their sorrows.”It has been profoundly discouraging for WAD, which has been giving its utmost for more than a decade to train poor, unemployed rural people to uplift their living standards and their economic well-being, just to be informed that people who are occupying front-runner positions in the country are blatantly stealing millions of dollars from the poor, which were meant to pay amongst others for their coffins and maternity leave,” she noted.De Klerk said that corruption had left the nation feeling betrayed, disillusioned and rocked to the core.She said corrupt officials were unscrupulously robbing the poor of what was rightfully theirs through their greed and haste to become rich quick.”If Namibia were a wealthy country with low levels of poverty, unemployment and a good health status of its people, the impact of such white-collar corruption would have less of an impact on the poor,” she said.De Klerk said the reality was that Namibia was not a wealthy nation but one with high unemployment, life-threatening diseases and a high percentage of extremely poor and illiterate people.Therefore, the President deserved the full support of all honest citizens in building a corruption-free society, she said.- Nampa